roim/ 


Duke   University   Libraries 

Commercial  enfr 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #721 


c/45     CJf^oAT  Va/y7><€/rt€^  crlonUmcMiL.  OocajU,^  C?a^ 

COMMERCIAL  ENFRANCHISEMENT 


OF   THE 


CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 


WITH 


ORIGINAL    AKTICLE.S    0:>f  A  NEW   .SYSTEM    OF    WEIGHTS    AND 
MEASUKi:S,  AND    NEW    COINS    FOR  THE    CON- 


FEDERATE  STATES. 


BY     A     VIRGINIAS. 


RICHMOND: 
WEST  &   JOHNSTON, 

145    MAIN    STREET. 

1862. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2011  with  funding  from 
Dul<e  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/commercialenfranOOcook 


PREFACE. 


The  publishers  of  these  suggestions  upon  subjects  now  so 
freely  discussed  throughout  the  Confederate  States,  arc  induced 
to  do  so  by  the  demand  for  the  periodical  in  whicli  the  article 
upon  Commercial  Enfranchisements  of  the  Confederate  States 
originally  appeared,  viz :  De  Bow's  Review  for  October  and 
November,  1860,  every  copy  of  the  edition  being  exhausted, 
we  have  obtained  the  corrections  and  notes  to  the  original 
article,  as  well  as  the  articles  from  the  same  pen  in  the  Mes- 
senger, tlio  Examiner,  and  the  Wlug,  which  will  furnish  the 
reader  witli  the  only  correct  and  complete  edition  of  all  the 
articles. 


Commercial  Enfranchisements  of  the  Confederated  States. 


SUBMITTEO     TO    THE    MACOX    CONVENTION. 


CHAPTER   I. 
TOBACCO,  COTTON,  EMBARGO,  &c. 

The  Commerce  of  the  Confederate  States,  constituting  the 
subject  which  has  called  us  together,  must  occupy  much  of  our 
reflections.  We  are  -without  Foreign  Commerce  altogether — 
only  a  few  cargoes  of  our  products  escape  the  blockading 
squadron  of  the  United  States  in  going  out  from  our  ports,  or 
an  occasional  vessel  may  succeed  in  entering  some  harbor  along- 
our  extended  coast ;  but,  prior  to  the  period  of  our  separation 
from  our  former  associates,  the  contemptible  position  of  the 
commerce  of  the  Southern  States  had  been  a  subject  of  most 
anxious  solicitude  upon  the  part  of  our  best  citizens, — the 
incubus  which  paralyzed  every  energ}' — that  palsied  every 
heart — that  chilled  tlie  zeal  of  the  most  devoted  patriots,  has 
been  thrown  from  our  commerce  by  the  action  of  the  people  of 
the  States  composing  the  Confederacy,  and  we  arc  now  assem- 
bled where  the  discussion  as  to  our  future  policy  must  be  left  to 
ourselves,  for  until  all  hands  arc  chilled  by  death,  no  renewal 
of  the  accursed  connection  Avith  the  United  States  will  be 
tolerated. 

Our  sagacity  must  find  tlic  road  of  safety — it  is  useless  to 
rely  upon  anything  beyond  the  interests  of  nations  or  States 
respecting  their  commerce;  and  since  the  chief  of  the  causes 
of  our  separation  must  be  found  in  questions  affecting  our  sell- 
ing tlic  products  of  the  soil  and  the  purchase  of  our  supplies 
from  others,  we  are  invited  to  inquire  into  the  value  and  the 
uses  of  the  articles  we  produce,  and  the  necessities  which  may 
exist  for  them  to  other  nations.  We  are  the  custodians  of  a 
yearly  yield  of  four  millions  of  bales  of  cotton — that  being  the 


6  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENTS 

average  annual  product  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America 
at  tins  time.  Cotton  is  an  article  necessary  to  the  commerce  of 
almost  every  nation  on  the  globe.  We  produce  annually  rice, 
pitch,  tar  and  turpentine,  to  a  very  large  amount,  besides  corn 
and  'wheat  and  live  stock.  As  an  article  of  great  value  to  the 
foreign  consumer  ^ve  mention  tobacco,  and  shall  state  some  facts 
deeply  interesting  to  the  States  of  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Missouri  and  Virginia  (we  omit  Kentucky,  Maryland  and  Dela- 
Avare,  because,  although  their  future  is  plainly  indicated  by  our 
wishes  and  th-eir  interests,  yet  they  have  not  identified  them- 
selves with  the  Confederate  States),  and,  therefore,  we  shall 
discuss  these  subjects  without  reference  to  them,  except  so  far 
as  the  facts  adduced  shall  implicate  them. 

The  annual  revenue  from  tobacco  in  England  is  about  twen- 
ty-five millions  of  dollars;  the  consumption  being  for  1858, 
83,739,133  lbs. ;  in  1859,  34,459,864  lbs.;  and  in  1860,  35,306,- 
846  lbs.  In  the  year  1858,  our  exports  to  England  and  her 
colonies  was  twenty-three  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
four  hogsheads,  four  thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy-three 
boxes,  and  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-seven  bales — 
their  whole  value  in  dollars,  as  declared  at  the  Custom  Houses 
of  the  United  States,  was  four  millions  three  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty.one  dollars.  In 
1859,  the  ofiicial  returns  make  our  exports  37,906  hogsheads, 
2,068  boxes,  3,891  bales— valked  at  ,«f6,000,234;  in  other 
words,  the  value  of  this  article  shipped  to  England  by  us,  when 
grown  and  placed  on  shipboard,  is,  on  an  average,  five  millions, 
and  allowing  the  consumpjtion  of  Great  Britain  to  be  four-fifths 
of  American  tobacco,  the  crop  of  our  tobacco  yields  to  her  cx- 
cliequer  four  times  as  much  as  it  does  to  our  planters,  without 
any  charge  for  that  which  she  exports,  or  for  that  which  goes  to 
her  colonies  direct;  the  duty  is  three  shillings  sterling  on  each 
pound  of  leaf  tobacco,  and  five  per  cent,  on  the  manufactured, 
about  nine  shillings  and  sixpence — say  seventy  five  cents  on  leaf 
and  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents  on  the  manufactured,  per 
pound."'-' 

■~  Tli«  cuhivalioii  of  Tobacco  is;  prohibited  in  Great  Britain. 


OF    THE   CONFEDERATE    STATES.  7 

In  Franco,  in  the  yeai*  1701,  the  Regie  and  Farmers'  'General 
were  abolished,  and  a  duty  of  twenty  francs  on  one  hundred 
p/junds,  imported  hy  foreign  vessels,  and  throe-fourths  of  that 
.sura  if  on  French  vessels,  was  suhstituted ;  and,  in  1799,  it  was 
increased  to  sixty-six  francs  on  that  in  foreign  vessels,  and  on 
that  in  French  vessels  to  forty-four  francs,  with  an  excise 
tax  of  forty  centimes  (about  eight  cents)  on  the  kilogramme 
(2  20-100  lbs.,)  was  imposed  on  the  manufactured,  and  twenty- 
four  centimes  (about  five  cents)  the  kilogramme  on  leaf  or 
smoking  tobacco ;  under  this  system  the  revenue  amounted  to 
only  1,129,708  franco.  In  1804,  the  Avhole  subject  was  en- 
trusted to  the  general  administration  of  the  customs,  the  fullest 
rigor  was  exercised,  and  domiciliary  visits  were  made  to  both 
sellers  and  manufacturers;  the  revenue  Avas  brought  up  to 
12,600,000  francs;  the  duties  were  doubled  in  1808;  and  again, 
in  180G,  with  all  possible  appliances  of  the  most  rigid  surveil- 
lance, the  revenue  only  reached,  in  1811,  10,000,000  francs ; 
from  this  period  the  sale  and  manufacture  became  a  Govern- 
ment monopoly  ;  by  this  system  the  revenue  was  brought  up  to 
25,000,000  francs  in  1820;  the  sales  that  year  by  Govern- 
ment were  12,645,277  kilogrammes,  producing  64,027,137 
francs — deducting  expenses  of  cost  of  tobacco  and  of  the  mann- 
facture,  the  net  revenue  was  42,219,003  francs.  In  1830, 
the  sales  were  11,169,554  kilogrammes ;  proceeds,  81,3G6,'947 
francs;  the  costs  of  tobacco  and  manufacture,  22,838,035  francs; 
net  revenue,  59,028,912  francs.  In  1838,  tobacco,  purdiased 
chiefly  in  America,  Avas  6,520,509  kilogrammes,  valued  at 
14,497,309  francs.  The  co.isumption  of  all  tobacco  in  France, 
in  1858,  was  21,981,090  kilogrammes;  in  1859,  24,099,837 
kilogrammes;  in  1820,  the  declared  value  of  American  and  all 
other  tobacco,  per  pound,  avrs  about  nineteen  cents  per  pound, 
or  (to  use  the  French  terras,)  two  francs  thirty  centimes  for  the 
kilogramme.  In  18.59,  1  4.5-100  francs  per  kilogramme,  or 
about  twelve  cents  per  pound,  Avas  the  declared  value  of  the 
tobacco,  as  received  at  the  ports  of  France.  Of  the  receipts, 
American  tobacco  constituted  10,840,198  kilogrammes — say 
48,001,035  pounds,  about  thirty  thousand  hogsheads  in  all;  th« 
revenue  for  1860,  was  the  enormous  sum  of  $36,000,000 — say 


8  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

180,000,000  francs,  and  thirty  thousand  persons  were  employed 
in  the  culture,  manufacture  and  sale  of  tobacco. 

The  productions  of  the  European  nations  as  reported  by  a  com- 
mittee on  tobacco  to  the  French  Assembly,  year  1835,  were : 

Russia  and  her  provinces ?, 683,000 

Deninark 100,000 

Hoi  land 2,575,250 

Germany 9,976,174 

Switzerland 135,000 

Wallachia 600,000 

Italy 1,208,000 

Aiir^tiia 21.000.000 

Polnnd l,500J0OO 

France 10,000,000 

Kiloirrammes 56,778,421 

Abe«t  ninety  thousand  hogsheads. 

On  this  subject,  a  letter  addressed  to  the  French  Govern- 
ment througli  the  Count  do  Vergenncs,  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  dated 
at  Paris,  August  15th,  1785,  is  full  of  argument,  and  we  may  at 
once  recognize  that  it  had  produced  its  impression,  for  six  years 
afterward  the  ports  were  thrown  open  to  tobacco  at  very  low 
duties  comparatively.  On  the  22d  June,  1848,  M.  Thouret  laid 
a  proposition  before  the  French  Assembly,  "that  the  sale  of 
tobacco  and  snuff  should  no  longer  be  exclusively  in  the  hands 
of  the  Government ;  the  proposition  did  not  receive  ttveyity-five 
votes  of  an  assembly  of  more  than  six  hundred  members,  and 
thus  fell  to  the  ground — that  number  of  assenting  votes  being 
required  before  any  proposition  can  come  before  the  Chambers 
even  for  consideration.  This  vote  would  seem  to  show  that 
public  opinion  in  France  was  in  favor  of  the  monopoly,  when 
we  consider  that  the  members  have  been  so  recently  chosen  by 
universal  suffrage  throughout  all  parts  of  France."  These 
extracts  are  from  Mr.  Rush's  late  work,  page  481.  This  is  the 
care  which  the  late  Government  bestowed  on  our  commercial 
interests.  Mr.  Jefferson  not  only  wrote  down  Lis  conversations 
on  the  subject,  but  he  submitted  facts  and  considerations  worthy 
of  the  great  interest  at  stake ;  the  indifferent  memorandum  by 
Mr.  Rush  was  enough  for  him  and  the  interests  he  represented 
in  France.  The  article  of  tobacco,  is  a  monopoly  in  Sardinia, 
and  all  Italy,  and  in  Austria,  and  also  in  Spain.     A  very  valu- 


OF   THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES.  9 

able  note  in  the  Lost  Principle,  page  179,  taken  from  Jefferson's 
report  in   1791,  and  a  report  on   commercial   relations  of  the 
United  States,   Thirty-Fourth  Congress,  First   Session,  Avill  be 
used  by  those  who  would  wish  to  investigate  the  subject  farther. 
We  have  sufficiently  demonstrated  the  value  of  this  article  to 
all  foreign  Governments  with  whom  we  have  had  much  inter- 
course   commercially.      The   institution   of   slavery   in   all   the 
border  States  depends  chiefly  upon  the  culture  of  tobacco,  and 
whilst  they  may  not  have  indicated  an}'-  restlessness  under  evi- 
dences of  inattention  to  their  interests  heretofore,  yet  tJiei/  mat/, 
in  self-defence,  levy  State  taxes  uj)on  the  sales  of  all  the  jyroduc- 
tions  of  such  countries  as  discriininatc  against  the  article  upon 
lohich  their  labor  and  their  institutions  must  depend,  and  thus 
bi'ing  up  unpleasant  complications ;    the   border   slave   States 
have  a  right  to  expect  that  this  article  should  receive  special 
attention  from  the   Government  of  the   Confederate   States  in 
their  intercourse  with  all  foreign  powers ;  if  not,  rather  than 
part  with  their  slaves,  they  ought  to  protect  themselves  through 
their  License  Laws;  but,  as  the  giavest,  and  certainly  the  first 
question  for  our  consideration,  must  be  how  the  present  block- 
ade can  be  removed  so  as  to  leave  the  ocean  clear  before  us,  we 
have  introdttccd  the  facts  above  respecting  tobacco,  and  find 
that  we  ma}''  affirm  that  upon  the  export  of  two  hundred  mil- 
lions  of  pounds   of  manufactured   and   leaf  tobacco,   which  is 
below  the  average  exports  annually,  the  foreign  Governments  of 
the  world  collect,  at  the  least,  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  of  revenue. 

The  enormous  power  we  thus  have  in  our  own  hands,  acting 
upon  the  simple  fulcrum  of  the  interest  of  other  nations,  cannot 
and  ought  not  to  escape  observation  in  the  enquiry  now  so  full 
of  interest  to  our  agricultural  and  commercial  interests :  how 
can  the  ports  of  the  country  be  thrown  open  ? 

In  1764  and  '65  there  was  a  nonimportation  league  ainongsl 
American  merchants.  In  ^Ir.  Jefferson's  administration  we 
had  an  embargo  upon  the  exports  of  the  United  States ;  whilst 
wc  suffered  inconveniences  ourselves  from  these  causes,  yet  the}' 
were  trivial  when  compared  to  those  inflicted  upon  Great  Britain 
for  respecting  the  effect  on  the  trading  classes  of  England — the 


10  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

painful  words  arc  used  by  her  own  historians:  "England 
labored  under  the  most  painful  anxiety  she  ever  felt"  in  1765, 
and  that  her  whole  interests  were  seriously  prejudiced  by  the 
embargo  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  confirmed  by  all  authorities.  The 
course  of  the  United  States  Government  in  blockading  our 
ports,  although  it  affects  us  less,  from  our  peculiar  situation, 
than  it  would  a  nation  more  dependent  on  commerce,  yet  we 
are  certainly  aware  of  the  fact,  too  patent  to  be  denied,  that  the 
war  Avould  be  of  very  little  moment  to  us  in  a  financial  aspect 
but  for  tlic  blockade  of  our  ports.  We  are  sure,  however,  that 
the  United  States  suffers  more  from  this  cause  than  we  do  ;  her 
manufacturers  now  pay  twenty-two  cents  the  pound  for  cotton — 
double  its  price  in  New  Orleans  and  five  cents  above  the  price 
in  Liverpool ;  but  it  is  none  of  our  duty  to  reason  the  folly  of 
the  blockade  to  Northern  minds;  it  is  sufficient  for  our  pur- 
poses, and,  indeed,  it  is  our  duty  to  enquire  Avhat  our  course  of 
action,  as  a  nation,  should  be,  seeing  the  whole  interests  which 
demand  our  consideration  and  care.  The  course  of  the  Crotern- 
ment  of  the  United  States  tvill  justify  us  in  laying  an  embargo 
on  all  exports  during  the  continuance  of  the  war  ;  eertoinly  so 
long  as  the  fleets  of  that  Government  practice  any  interruptions 
to  our  commerce.  Since  that  Government  has  thrown  in  our 
way  the  fulcrum,  let  us  apply  the  lever  with  which  we  can  move 
the  whole  commercial  world.  This  done  and  persevered  in  for 
a  short  time,  would  carry  famine  and  want  to  the  homes  and 
firesides  of  millions  of  human  beings  in  all  the  manufacturing 
and  commercial  nations  of  the  world.  'Vhe  great  criminal  in 
this  transaction  would  be  that  Billy  tyrant,  the  Government  of 
the  United  States ;  for  its  continuance  Avould  depend  on  their 
action,  not  on  ours,  as  we  should  stand  ready  to  repeal  the  em- 
bargo when  the  United  States  blockading  squadron  was  with- 
drawn, or  permanent  peace  established  with  us.  This  policy 
would  beget  us  friends  where  they  are  most  needed,  viz :  amongst 
the  commercial  and  manufticturing  nations  of  Europe.  In  the 
negotiation  which  would  spring  up  with  them,  ojyen  jjorts  a^nd 
diminished  duties  for  American  tobacco  should  become  an  object 
of  paramount  importance.  Let  the  scuffle  for  our  markets  take 
place  between  all  foreign  nations,  for  until  we  can  secure  a  navy 


OF   TIIR    CONFEDERATE    STATES.  M. 

our  products  and  tlio  markets  we  offer  for  foreign  commodities 
must  huy  for  us  and  our  interests  protection.  The  exports  of 
the  Confederate  States  in  former  j-cars  have  been  -worth  two 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  in  round  numbers ;  our 
consumption  of  goods  derived  from  the  .Northern  States  and  for- 
eign nations  has  been  as  much  more,  say  together  five  hundred 
millions  of  dollars — no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  The  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  have  driven 
many  Yankee  ships  from  the  ocean,  but  rather  than  lose  our 
crops,  England  and  France  will  turn  loose  a  fleet  upon  the 
United  States  Navy  which  will  convey  these  meddlesome 
obtruders  into  other  seas  and  inlets  than  those  on  the  Southern 
coast. ,  We  now  allow  a  few  cargoes  to  depart  from  our  ports ; 
they  are  worthless  to  us  in  any  view,  when  compared  to  the  vast 
crops  Avhieh  must  remain  in  our  barns  and  store-houses.  These 
cargoes,  however,  are  just  so  much  turned  against  us,  so  long  as 
the  war  lasts,  and  goes  to  aid  our  enemies.  This  course,  on  our 
part,  invites  the  rapacity  of  merchants  to  enterprises  calculated 
to  entangle  us  with  other  nations,  and  must  beget  vexatious 
quarrels  between  ourselves  and  our  customers.  Such  a  policy  is 
unworthy  of  a  great  and  honorable  people,  and  ought  not  to  be 
practiced  by  us.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1785, 
as  expressed  in  his  letter  to  Hogcndorf,  that  the  United  States 
should  practice  neither  commerce  nor  navigation ;  and  that 
whenever,  indeed,  their  numbers  shoiild  so  increase  as  that 
their  produce  would  overstock  the  markets  of  the  nations  who 
should  come  to  seek  it,  the  farmers  must  either  employ  the 
surplus  of  their  time  in  manufactures  or  in  navigation.  Until 
our  ports  are  opened,  we  must  occupy  our  thoughts  as  to  some 
new  field  of  labor,  notwithstanding  there  is  an  increasing  taste 
with  our  people  for  commerce  and  navigation. 

The  Convention  on  this  subject  reached  tlie  following  conclusion  : 
Resolved,  That  in  order  to  encourage  the:  importation  of  articles  necessary 
to  the  ]>reseni  exigences  of  the  country,  return  cargoes  ought  lo  be  furnished 
to  all  vessels  introducing  commodities  within  the  Confederate  States  from 
Enrojican  nation?,  the  ni-furniiliition  of  stocks  in  the  seaports  and  large 
interior  cities  being  at  the  same  time  regarcled  impolitic. 


12  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

CHAPTER    II. 

EXCHEftUER-TAX  ON  BAITK  NOTES. 

The  war  must  go  on,  however,  and  one  of  its  sinews  is  money^ 
and  with  this  comes  up  the  whole  question  of  finance,  and  to 
that  subject  we  now  proceed.  The  last  official  returns  from  the 
banks  of  the  Confederate  States  disclose  their  circulation  in 
July,  1860,  to  be  sixty-eight  to  seventy-millions  of  dollars,  their 
deposits  some  fifty  to  fifty-one  millions,  their  specie  some  thirty- 
one  to  thirty-two  millions ;  it  may  be  allowed  that  the  deposits 
should  be  added  to  the  circulation  to  represent  fairly  the  moneys 
available  for  commercial  and  agricultural  purposes.  We  may 
safely  state  then,  that  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  was 
the  whole  circulation  which  these  institutions  represented.  This 
sum  should  be  augmented  by  such  amount  as  may  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  in  gold  or  silver,  and  applying  the  general 
multiple  of  thirty  in  property  to  one  of  money,  the  property  of 
the  Confederate  States  amounts  to  about  four  thousand  millions 
of  dollars.  The  necessities  of  the  Confederate  States  have  in- 
creased the  volume  of  paper  credits  vastly.  A  suspension  of 
specie  payments  has  been  made  general,  and  the  entire  transac- 
tions of  the  business  of  the  country  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
conflict  with  the  United  States  must  be  carried  on  by  govern- 
mental and  bank  credits,  paper  money,  unless  all  the  different 
elements  can  be  united  in  some  system  of  measures  mutually 
advantageous. 

The  very  fact  that  we  must  collect  the  direct  tax  now  imposed 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  our  Congress,  upon  the  property  of 
the  people  of  the  Confederate  States,  in  Government  paper  and 
use  bank  notes,  disposes  of  the  question  as  to  whether  the  Gov- 
ernment should  ally  itself  with  the  business  of  the  banks  or  the 
commerce  of  the  country.  The  question  which  arises  is,  what 
action  ought  the  Government  to  take  to  render  the  taxes 
uniform?  An  exchequer,  with  an  office  of  discount  and  deposit 
attached,  embracing  the  general  features  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 


OF   THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES.  jfS^ 

land,  recommends  itself;  the  Government  has  made  laws 
regulating  the  conduct  of  its  officers  in  the  collection  and 
disbursement  of  its  revenues — tlicy  borrow  and  collect,  and 
then  pay  away  what  they  borrow  or  collect  ;  the  Treasury  of 
the  Government  is  that  thing  which  keeps  these  means  from 
their  receipt  till  their  disbursement ;  and  an  exchequer,  with  a 
capital  of  fifty  millions  to  be  raised  by  a  subscription  of  forty 
millions  in  Confederate  eight  per  cent,  stock  by  the  Government 
or  individuals,  and  ten  millions  in  coin,  is  recommended  with  the 
following  restrictions  and  limitations :  The  issue  department  to 
be  separate  and  distinct  from  the  banking  department,  and  the 
deposit  of  four  dollars  in  Confederate  debt  and  one  dollar  in 
coin  to  be  left  with  the  Governor  and  Commissioners  of  the 
issue  department  by  the  banking  department,  upon  which  the 
Commissioners  shall  deliver  to  the  banking  department  or  the 
offices  of  discount  and  deposit  notes  for  the  like  amounts,  bearing 
the  caption:  "The  Governor  and  Managers  of  the  Exchequer  of 

the  Confederate  States  of  America,  will  pay  to 

or  bearer  at ."     No   note    to   be   ever  used  a 

second  time  when  once  returned  to  the  issue  department.  The 
offices  to  be  located  where  the  Government  may  indicate ;  the 
revenues  of  the  Government  to  be  always  deposited  in  the  insti- 
tution, and  transferred  by  it  from  any  one  office  to  any  other 
where  required,  free  of  charge,  by  the  banking  department ;  all 
transfers  of  mone3"s  for  the  Government  as  well  as  individuals 
to  take  place  without  any  checks.  The  capital  to  be  awarded 
to  each  State  in  proportion  to  its  population  and  property. 
The  Commissioners  for  the  issue  department,  to  reside  at  their 
several  branches,  to  be  three  in  number,  who  shall  issue  the 
notes  as  specified,  and  to  be  appointed  by  the  President  and 
Senate  of  the  Confederate  States;  the  general  management  of 
the  banking  department  at  each  office  to  be  conducted  by  a 
governor  and  managers,  say  seven  in  number,  three  appointed 
by  the  Governor  of  the  State  and  three  elected  by  the  local 
shareholders,  and  these  to  name  a  chairman — accounts  to  be 
kept  with  private  individuals  and  States  as  may  be  prescribed 
by  the  managers,  the  issues  of  notes  for  circulation,  after  the 
issue  of  fifty  millions,  to  take  place  upon  the  deposit  of  two 


14  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

dolLars  in  Confederate  debt  and  one  in  c.in,  up  to  say  eighty 
millions — beyond  tliat  sum  to  be  only  issued  upon  one  dollar  in 
coin  as  a  deposit  for  each  dollar  of  note.  The  power  to  issue 
notes  for  circulation  to  be  limited  to  the  period  of  the  extinction 
of  the  Confederate  debt.  No  transaction  to  take  place  in  any 
description  of  bills  or  notes  maturing  beyond  the  State  in  which 
the  office  was  located.  The  debts  due  to  the  institution  never 
to  exceed  twice  its  capital  at  any  of  its  offices.  The  issue  of 
post  notes,  at  periods  not  beyond  thirty  days,  upon  the  deposit 
of  money  with  the  banking  department,  and  payable  to  the 
order  of  the  depositors,   to  be  obligatory,  provided  the  amount 

named  docs  not  fall  below dollars. 

It  cannot  escape  the  least  observant,  that  the  restrictions 
against  the  dealings  in  exchange,  as  it  is  generally  termed,  are 
positive;  and  as  this  subject  should  be  disposed  of  satisfactorily 
by  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States,  it  is  in  our  judg- 
ment rio-ht  and  proper  to  declare  invalid  all  evidences  of  debt 
due,  or  to  become  due  at  any  point  in  any  State  adhering  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  This  Avould  upturn  and 
destroy  the  stupendous  operations  in  exchange  bills,  in  which 
the  State  banks  of  the  South  have  participated  to  the  prejudice 
of  our  commerce  and  agriculture.  The  credit  given  in  the  sale 
and  movement  of  the  crops  of  the  South  has  left  us  with  a  large 
amount  of  bank  issues,  totally  inconvertible  into  coin.  The 
purchaser  of  our  crops,  say  of  cotton,  instead  of  sending  his 
means  direct  to  us,  has  been  in  the  habit  of  directing  the  pur- 
chases to  be  made  and  a  bill  drawn  on  his  agent  in  New  York 

at date,  and  this  agent  would  sell  his  sterling  exchange 

on  the  purchaser  in,  say  Manchester,  England,  retire  the  draft 
from  New  Orleans,  Mobile  or  Charleston,  as  the  case  might  be, 
the  cotton  going  forward,  and  not  unfrequently  reaching  Man- 
chester, and  being  converted  into  goods  and  sold  before  the 
maturity  of  the  bill.  The  credit  given  in  these  transactions 
inures  to  the  manufacturer  in  Manchester,  and  is  furnished  by 
the  banks  of  the  South,  and  works  out  the  simple  result  of  leav- 
ing the  coin,  which  ought  to  take  the  place  of  our  cotton  Avhen 
it  is  shipped  in  our  own  country,  in  the  hands  of  the  English 
manufacturer.     If  the  purchaser  reside  in  New  England  it  is  the 


OF   TUE    CONFEDERATE   STATES.  15 

same.     The  banks  of  England,  France,  or  of  New  York,  leave 
thh  whole  business  to  merchants  ;  and  their  sagacvtj  need  but 
be   commended,   since   suspensions  of  specie  payments  arc  not 
practiced  by  them  upon  every  flaw  of  adversity  as  is  the  case 
with  us.     The  tendency  of  the  banking  system  is  to  expansion. 
Our   effort  to  unite   circulation   and   discount   must  fail.     The 
principles  arc  antagonistical  and  as  irreconcilable  as  the  asperi- 
ties between   paper  money  and  coin.     The  transfer  of  the  crops 
of  the  South,  if  confined  to  ready  money,  will  bring  buyers  to 
our  doors  prepared  to  pay  down  for  their  supplies.     Certainly, 
we  are  not  able  to  sell  our  enormous  crops  on   credit,  and  this 
being  too  obvious,  the  action  of  our  Congress  can  remedy  the 
evils  by  furnishing  a  convertible  currency,  and  taxing  all  other 
bank    issues    upon    each    note,    say    ten    cents    the   first   year, 
advancing   five    cents   for   each    year,    for   tAvcnty   years,    the 
revenue  thus  derived  will  be  $750,000  the  first  year,  increasing 
annually  with  the  tax,  taking  all  the  notes  issued  by  the  banks 
at  375,000,000,  and  the  denominations  to  average  ten  dollars 
each.    The  term  of  twenty  years  would  bring  us  into  a  condition 
of  affiiirs  in  which  none  but  large  bank  notes  would  exist;   and 
if  Ave  paid  off  our  national  debt,  a  metallic  currency  for  all  the 
small  transactions  of  the  country  would  prevail. 

The  tax  on  bank  issues  is  one  of  the  very  lightest  which 
eould  be  imposed  on  the  country,  as  the  annual  interest  on  the 
very  smallest  note  would,  for  years,  be  more  than  the  tax 
imposed  by  the  Government.  Wc  need  coin  in  all  the  smaller 
transactions.  Bank  paper  is  its  foe;  we  must  remove  that 
before  the  other  will  come  in  its  place.  This  digression  Irom 
advocating  an  exchequer  has  been  unavoidable,  since  the  whole 
subject  of  the  currency  of  the  country  is  in  review.  One  of  the 
objects  which  we  think  may  be  accomplished  by  an  exchequer  is 
to  furnish  upon  a  basis  of  ten  millions  in  coin,  credits  available 
to  the  Government  and  the  borrowers  of  money  to  the  extent  of 
one  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  It  is  established  as  a  fact,  that 
any  issue  of  bank  paper,  justly  in  circulation,  must  leave  a  debt 
behind  it  which  it  is  valuable  to  pay.  "When  to  this  we  add  the 
other  quality,  that  it  will  be  credited  and  received  by  the  largest 
money  dealer  in  the  country,   the   Government,  no  doubt  can 


16  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

exist  as  to  its  usefulness  as  a  circulating  medium,  but  one  and 
only  one  of  these  qualities,  the  latter,  exists  in  regard  to  a 
treasury  note.  The  reverse  is  the  fact  respecting  the  other 
quality,  as  it,  the  treasury  note,  gets  into  existence,  as  evidence 
of  an  indebtedness  to  its  first  holder ;  and  since  the  dues  to  the 
Government  are  smaller  than  the  notes  which  may  be  issued, 
their  value  as  a  circulating  medium  must  be  short-lived  and 
ephemeral.  The  treasury  notes  of  the  Government  are  cheer- 
fully used  by  our  citizens  and  the  banks ;  and  if  no  other  evi- 
dence was  furnished  of  the  cordiality  with  Avhich  every  interest 
was  prepared  to  sustain  the  Government  of  the  Confederate 
States,  this  would  be  ample ;  but  we  are  dealing  with  principles 
older  than  our  Government,  and  more  permanent  than  our 
present  conflict  is  likely  to  be.  There  is  a  standard  of  values 
recognized  by  us  and  all  the  world,  and  that  standard  of  values 
is  for  every  transaction,  viz :  so  many  grains  of  gold  or  silver, 
called  in  our  language  and  for  our  commerce  a  dollar.  We  may 
evidence  our  indebtedness  by  any  description  of  paper  issues 
most  acceptable ;  but  the  debt  cannot  be  cancelled  by  the  country 
until  taxes  are  collected  from  the  land,  and  labor  sufficient  to 
liquidate  the  obligation ;  but  the  strong  confidence  evinced  on 
all  hands  in  our  cause  and  our  delivery,  carries  with  it  power 
onoudi  to  overcome  all  difficulties  connected  with  our  finances. 
Still,  that  this  immense  force  shall  be  conducted  into  safe  and 
judicious  channels,  has  been  the  object  of  these  suggestions. 


OF   THE   CONFEDEllATE   STATES.  17 

CHArTER   III. 

WEIGHTS,  MEASURES  AND  COINS. 

As  gcrman  to  these  subjects  of  commerce  and  finance,  comes 
up  the  subject  of  weights  and  measures ;  and  here,  fortunately 
for  us,  tlie  hibor  has  been  already  performed  by  the  French. 
The  spherical  distance  from  the  equator  to  the  pole  has 
been  carefully  ascertained  to  be  5,130,740  toises  (six  feet 
89450-100000  parts.)  This  divided  by  ten  millions  of  parts 
gives  the  metre  (which  is  39  371-1000  English  inches.)  This  is 
the  unit  of  their  measures  of  length.  Its  square  and  cube  arc 
taken  as  standards  of  surface,  capacity  and  solidity.  The 
gramme,  which  is  the  unit  of  the  French  weights,  is  the  one- 
hundredth  part  of  a  cubic  metre  at  (39.26  degrees  temperature 
Fahrenheit  or  4®  centigrade,)  the  melting  point  of  frozen  water. 
The  litre  French  for  measuring  capacitj',  is  the  cube  of  one- 
tenth  of  a  metre.  The  terms  for  multiplying  are  Greek  ;  those 
for  dividing  are  Latin.  A  simpler  or  a  more  exact  system  can- 
not be  devised.  We  could  adjust  ours  from  natural  objects, 
such  as  the  seed  of  tobacco  or  cotton,  or  even  the  fibre  of  the 
sea  island  cotton ;  but  the  present  complex  tables  of  Troy 
weight,  "Apothecaries  weight,"  Avoirdupois  weight,  "wool 
weight  and  cheese  and  butter  weight,"  are  indefensible  expect 
that  they  are  in  use,  whilst  our  measures  arc  equally  as  bad. 
"Long  measure,"  superficial  measure,  "cubic  or  solid  measure," 
liquid  measure,  "dry  measure,"  and  wood  measure — ever}'-  one 
arbitrary.  New  names  and  a  new  coin  for  our  standards  struck 
by  ourselves,  abrogating  entirely  every  name  of  every  instru- 
ment which  is  now  attached  to  our  commercial  intercourse,  will 
destroy  the  badges  of  our  inferiority.  Let  the  baptism  of  fire 
and  blood  through  which  we  are  passing,  enable  us  to  speak  a 
new  language  in  our  exchanges  with  the  world.  We  are  on 
the  banks  of  aii  eternal  deliverance  from  bondage  ;  let  us  speak 
with  new  tongues ;  let  us  not  recall  our  former  servitude  by  any 
word  which  is  used  by  that  race  and  Government  whose  course 
2 


18  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

toward  us  ought  to  make  us  hesitate  to  speak  even  the  same 
vernacular.  The  metrical  system  has  been  adopted  by  law  in 
Spain,  Belgium.  Greece,  Holland,  Lombardy,  Poland,  Switzer- 
land, and  in  Chili,  Columbia  and  Mexico. 

Tlie  Convention  veaohed  this  conclusion  on  this  subject ; 

liesolvcd,  That  to  facilitate  and  simplify  commercial  calculations  in  tlie 
comtiy,  we  recommend  that  the  Congress  of  tlie  Confederate  States  pass  a 
law  regulating  coins  and  weights  and  measures,  and  that  the  basis  shall  be 
put  upon  a  decimal  ratio,  with  appropriate  denominations. 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  19 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Tdllowing  articles  were  pnblifjlied  upon  the  subject  of  Weights,  treas- 
ures anil  Coins,  by  the  author  of  this  treaties  upon  Commercial  Enfranchise- 
ment in  the  onler  in  vvliicli  the>  here  appeal. 

The  proposed  alterations  in  our  weights  and  measures,  as  well 
as  coins,  which  suggests  the  French  system  instead  of  our  pres- 
ent ones,  must  lead  to  investigations  of  some  value  and  interest, 
and  being  perfectly  satisfied  and  approving  of  the  action  of  the 
Macon  Convention  on  the  subject,  the  following  statements  of 
names,  and  the  origin  and  value  of  the  metrical  system,  are  re- 
garded of  sufficient  importance  to  claim  general  attention. 

The  metrical  system  has  one  unit  for  its  basis,  is  universal 
and  decimal :  from  the  unit  of  length  all  the  other  units  are 
derived. 

In  order  that  this  unit  might  belong  equally  to  all  nations,  it 
was  taken  on  the  actual  dimensions  of  om*  globe.  It  is  the  ten 
millionth  part  of  the  quarter  of  the  terrestial  meridian. 

This  miit  of  length  is  called  "metre"  to  adapt  it  to  the  deci- 
mal calculation  ;  the  metre  was  sub-divided  into  parts  of  ten, 
and  those  into  others  ten  times  smaller,  and  its  multiples  are  by 
ten,  and  those  by  ten  again. 

The  metre  serves  as  a  basis  to  the  other  units  in  the  follow- 
ing manner: 

The  arc,  or  the  unit  of  superficial  measure,  is  a  square,  the 
size  of  which  is  ten  metres  long. 

The  stere,  or  the  unit  of  cubation  for  wood,  is  a  cubic  metre. 

The  litre,  or   the  unit  of  gauging   vessels  for  dry   or  liquid 

materials,  is  a  cube,  the  side  of  which  is  one-tenth  of  a  metre. 

The  gramme,  or  the  unit  of  Aveight,  is  the  weight  of  a  cube 

of  1.100  of  a  metre,  or  one  cubic  centimetre  of  distilled  water 

at  its  maximum  density,  (4.0  centigrade)  weighed  in  a  vacuum. 

The  franc,  or  the  monetary  unit,  is  five  grammes  of  an  alloy 

compounded  of  nine   parts  of  fine  silver  and  one   part  of  pure 

copper,  and  made  under  guaranty. 


20i  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

All  these  units  are  multiplied  and  divided  like  the  metres,  to 
systematize  the  denominations.  The  names  of  the  multiples 
are  taken  from  the  Greek  language,  and  those  of  the  divisions 
from  the  Latin,  thus:  deca  for  ten;  hc<;to  for  100;  hilo  for 
1,000;  myria  for  10,000;  deci  for  one-tenth,  or  0.1 ;  centi  for 
one-hundredth,  or  0.01;  milU  for  one-thousandth,  or  0.001. 
These  names  are  written  before  that  of  the  kind  of  unit  in  ques- 
tion. Thus,  we  say  1  deca-metre  for  10  metres;  kilo-metre  for 
thousand  metres;  kilogramme  for  a  thousand  grammes;  centi- 
metre, centilitre,  centigramme,  for  0.01,  or  one-hundredth  of  a 
metre,  of  a  gramme  and  of  a  litre. 

Each  of  these  multiples  or  divisors  may,  in  the  calculation, 
be  taken  for  principal  units.  It  is  thus  that  the  kilometre 
serves  as  unit  of  topographical  length  for  railroads;  the  milli- 
metre for  micrometical  measures;  the  kilogramme  for  the 
weights  of  commerce,  &c.  Custom  has  adapted  all  these  Greek 
and  Latin  names  onlv  for  the  metre,  the  litre  and  the  si;ramme. 
Those  which  belong  to  the  are,  are  only  the  hectare  and  the 
centiare ;  those  which  relate  to  the  stere  are  the  decistere  and 
the  centistere. 

For  the  franc  the  names  of  decime  and  centime,  taken  for 
0.1  franc,  (one-tenth,)  0.01  franc,  (or  one-hundredth,)  are  the 
only  ones  that  are  made  use  of. 

It  is  an  ascertained  fact,  that  this  adjustment,  so  simple,  pre- 
sents the  feature  of  remarkable  unity  in  this:  that  there  is  no 
standard  of  measures  of  capacity;  in  fact,  it  would  be  unneces- 
sary, since  the  litre,  the  unit  of  this  standard,  is  a  cubic  deci- 
metre; and  a  cubic  decimetre  of  distilled  water,  at  its  maxium 
density,  weighs  in  a  vacuum  exactly  one  kilogramme. 

The  above  facts  are  drawn  from  official  sources,  and  present 
us  with  much  worthy  of  careful  consideration.  We  are  enter- 
ing into  a  new  order  of  things;  and  setting  up  for  ourselves  as 
a  nation,  we  demand  and  seek  independence  and  individuality 
as  a  people.  Commercially,  we  have  been  wholly  dependent  on 
Yankee  masters;  in  striking  oif  our  shackles  and  reaching  out 
our  unloosed  arms ;  let  our  tongues  utter  new  words ;  let  new 
names  be  adopted  for  our  insignia  in  commerce  and  trade — 
differing   in    everything   from  a   Yankee   in  our  thoughts,  our 


OF   THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES.  21 

religion,  our  feelings,  our  laws,  our  institutions,  our  voices,  our 
walking,  our  writing,  and  our  talking;  it  surely  must  be  soon  a 
necessity  that  we  have  new  weights  and  measures  as  well  as  new 
coins.  Commercial  independence  is,  and  has  been,  the  burden 
of  thousands  of  speeches  and  myriads  of  essays  throughout  the 
Confederate  States;  many  theories  have  been  suggested,  but  it 
is  singular  that  not  one  single  Legislature,  Congi-ess,  or  even 
any  council,  has  adopted  any  suggestion  by  changing  any  law 
or  usage,  and  for  all  apparent  good,  we  yet  sec  the  vast  changes 
now  taking  place  in  our  political  relations  will  find  us  just  as 
much  a  Yankee-patronizing  and  sustaining  province  as  we  for- 
merly were.  Reformation  by  changing  our  commercial  language 
will  certainly  make  us  a  different  people  so  far  as  our  books  of 
accounts  are  concerned,  and  also  in  relation  to  our  school-books, 
in  our  counting-houses,  at  our  exchanges,  in  our  stores  and 
shops,  in  our  apothecaries  and  drug  stores,  as  well  as  at  our 
market-places;  and  when  at  all  these  places  the  people  speak  a 
new  tongue  in  their  buying  and  selling,  we  shall  know  certainly 
we  have  begun  to  carry  on  our  affairs  independently.  The  fact 
that  in  the  dispersion  of  mankind  at  the  Tower  of  Babel  their 
language  was  made  different,  announces  a  potent  principle, 
which  we  can  apply  to  our  commercial  interests  without  detri- 
ment. 

The  questions  as  to  the  value  of  any  one  system  over  another, 
are  to  be  discussed  hereafter ;  and  in  placing  the  above  facts 
and  suggestions  before  the  reader,  his  consideration  of  the  sub- 
ject may  suggest  a  different  and  better  system.  We  may,  at 
the  least,  think  over  the  names  and  familiarize  our  minds  with 
the  necessity  for  such  action  as  shall  cut  off  all  evidence  of  our 
accursed  connection  with  the  United  States.  If,  by  any  occur- 
rence in  a  single  day,  the  people  of  the  State  of  Tennessee 
should  change  their  language  to  the  French,  intercourse  with 
them  of  every  kind  would  be  seriously  interrupted,  if  not  en- 
tirely suspended;  and  so  with  our  language  of  commerce.  If 
we  shall,  in  the  Confederate  States,  change  our  commercial  lan- 
guage, make  it  different  from  the  Yankees,  we  may  certainly 
infer  that  a  serious  obstacle  will  arise  to  intercourse  with  them. 


22  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCniSEMENI 


CHAPTER    V. 

''Wliose  is  this  image  and  superscription?"' 

The  answer  to  tins  question  settled  the  nationality  of  the 
place  at  which  the  interrogatory  was  put,  the  piece  of  money, 
the  com  of  tlie  country,  had  upon  it  the  image  of  Caesar,  it  was 
the  current  coin,  the  money  of  Syria,  and  it  was  evidence  of 
the  government  to  which  they  should  pay  tribute — a  simpler 
elucidation  could  not  have  been  found.  It  settled  the  question 
of  their  obedience,  their  subjugation,  and  of  their  duty  to  obey 
their  sovereign's  demand.  This  fact  announces,  in  plain  terms, 
that  every  nation  should  indicate  its  existence  by  its  own  coins. 
Have  we  any?  The  Confederate  States  have  no  coins.  There 
is  no  legal  unit  (for  a  dollar)  of  the  Confederate  States.  A 
5-franc  piece,  by  the  act  of  March  9th,  1861,  is  declared  to  be 
worth  ninety-five  cents,  and  a  Mexican  and  an  United  States 
dollar  to  be  worth  one  hundred  and  two  cents.  On  the  9th  of 
March,  1861,  a  law  was  passed  requiring  that  suitable  dies 
should  be  prepared  for  the  coins  of  the  Confederate  States,  but 
nothing  has  been,  as  yet,  done  vipon  the  subject.  The  relative 
value  which  gold  and  silver  bear  to  each  other,  as  well  as  what 
ought  to  be  their  relations  in  our  circulating  medium  are  to  be 
declared.  In  1834  the  United  States  Government  made  the 
value  of  gold  to  be  sixteen  to  one  of  silver ;  it  had  been  fifteen 
to  one  by  the  act  of  1793.  The  alloy  is  inexact  in  the  coins  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  and  indeed  of  all  nations 
except  the  French.  The  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain  are  finer 
than  the  French  Napoleons ;  the  Mexican  and  United  States 
silver  dollars  are  finer  than  the  French  five-franc  pieces.  The 
object  of  all  alloy,  that  is,  durability  as  well  as  exactness,  is 
secured  better  by  the  policy  of  the  French  Government,  by 
making  their  coins  out  of  a  mixture — one-tenth  of  which  is  of 
an  inferior  metal,  copper,  with  their  gold  or  silver  coins,  and  in 
the  copper  coins  ninety-five  copper,  four  of  tin  and  one  of  zinc. 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES-  23 

The  real  value  of  a  kilogramme  of  gold  is  thirty-one  hundred 
francs:  in  j^ilver  two  hundred  francs;  in  copper  ten  francs.  A 
centime,  in  copper,  weighs  one  gramme;  a  franc  silver  five 
grammes;  twenty  centimes,  silver,  one  gramme.  The  franc, 
their  unit,  may  be  very  easily  converted  into  a  standard  of 
either  a  weight  or  a  measure,  as  it  is  23-1,000  of  a  metre  across 
its  face  and  is  just  1-200  parts  of  a  kilogramme,  the  commercial 
unit  of  weight.  The  questions  which  might  arise  with  a  nation 
respecting  any  change  in  their  coins  ought  not  to  be  considered 
with  us,  as  wc  begin  our  existence  and  ought  to  seek  the  true 
standard  and  adopt  it.  If  Ave  make  silver  our  unit  in  our  coins, 
then  wc  should  find  the  simplest  weight  and  make  the  coin  to 
contain  a  decimal  of  the  mixture,  which  itself  should  possess 
decimal  proportions  of  alloy  and  pure  silver.  The  same  course 
should  be  pursued  if  we  take  gold.  The  names  to  be  applied 
to  these  coins  should  be  expressive  of  the  nation.  We  have  the 
words  Confederate,  State,  county,  which  could  be  easily  used 
without  any  violence  to  the  customs  of  our  people.  The  ques- 
tion once  settled  as  to  the  unit,  the  names  are  simple,  and  the 
decimal  being  the  divisions,  of  course  custom  would  soon  regu- 
late the  balance.  One  thing  is,  however,  certain  that  nothing 
can  reconcile  the  people  to  any  other  than  a  decimal  system  in 
their  currency;  and  if  any  argument  were  needed  in  favour  of 
a  decimal  system  in  weights  and  measures,  this  very  fact  that, 
after  a  trial  of  the  principle  in  the  currency,  the  experience  of 
the  whole  population  approves  of  it  entirely,  would  answer  every 
objection  against  the  adoption  of  a  decimal  system  in  our  weights 
and  measures. 

Moses  said,  "Do  not  say  any  unjust  thing  in  judgment,  in 
rule,  in  weight,  or  in  measure;  let  the  balance  be  just  and  the 
weights  equal ;  the  bushel  just,  and  the  sextary  equal."  The 
impossibility  of  being  exact  in  our  weights  and  measures,  with 
our  present  system,  will  be  made  apparent  by  the  statement  of 
a  few  facts :  A  grain  of  wheat  taken  from  the  middle  of  the 
ear,  ivcll  dried,  is  the  standard  which  starts  the  jjoimd  troy — 
a.s  follows:  24  grains  a  pennyweight,  (an  old  silver  coin  of  Great 
Britain  being  of  that  weight,)  20  pennyweights  an  ounce,  and 
12  ounces  a  pound.     In  avoidupois  weight  there  is  a  starting 


24  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

point,  except  that,  by  an  act  of  Parliament,  10  grains  make  one 
scruple,  and  3  scruples  a  drachm,  16  drachms  an  ounce,  and  16 
ounces  a  pound,  in  the  same  natural  object.  In  apothecaries' 
weight  we  have  a  long  string  of  names  suitable  for  doctors  and 
quacks  to  call  over  and  write  out  for  the  apothecary,  but  there 
is  no  meaning  to  any  of  these  several  words  out  of  the  pursuits 
to  which  they  relate.  A  grocer  is,  by  his  profession,  a  stranger 
to  the  weights  of  the  apothecary,  and  the  silversmith  would  do 
a  poor  business  if  he  adopted  the  weights  of  the  grocer  or 
the  apothecary,  as  he  must  use  troy  weight  or  dian>ond  weight; 
but  yet  we  teach  our  children  all  these  tables,  and  they  are  all 
in  use  amongst  our  people  without  any  advantage,  but  very 
great  troiible,  and  not  unfrequently  with  blunders  and  mistakes^^ 
and  never  with  positive  exactness.  Since  twenty  grains  of  one 
field  and  one  variety  of  wheat  will  weigh  very  differently  from 
another  twenty  grains  from  another  field,  and  as  Ave  are  seeking 
exactness,  and  as  the  foundation  of  the  whole  system  is  variable, 
we  should  abandon  the  system  as  worthless  and  look  for  another. 
Our  measures  are  equally  as  objectionable,  as  a  few  facts  will 
demonstrate.  We  have,  as  the  starting  point,  or  the  unit,  the 
inch,  defined  thus :  three  barleycorns  make  an  inch,  twelve 
inches  a  foot,  three  feet  a  yard,  &c.  In  many  portions  of  the 
Confederate  States  barley  is  not  known.  It  being  one  of  the 
staple  productions  of  England,  however,  she  might  apologise  for 
making  such  an  object  the  basis  of  her  long  measures,  but  for 
us  it  has  no  claims  of  this  kind.  In  measuring  grain,  or  to 
speak  as  the  merchants  now  speak,  by  dry  measure,  we  have  a 
bushel  in  name,  but  the  thing  used  is  a  half  bushel,  with  but  few 
exceptions.  Ten  pounds  of  distilled  water  is  a  gallon,  and  eighty 
pounds  of  distilled  water  is  a  bushel — this  measure  is,  of  course, 
dependent  upon  the  wheat  grain,  and  that  being  variable,  the 
standard  which  we  have  derived,  and  is  in  use,  must  be  defec- 
tive. Our  liquid  measures  are  divided  and  subdivided  so  singu- 
larly as  to  require  familiarity,  in  absolute  use,  to  make  us  recol- 
lect them.  Four  gills  a  pint,  two  pints  a  quart,  four  quarts  a 
gallon,  &c.  Cubic  measure  is  a  real  difficulty — let  us  state  it: 
1,720  inches  a  foot,  27  feet  a  yard,  12  cubic  feet  a  ton  of  ship- 
ping, &c.     Our  square  measure  are,  of  course,  bottomed  upon, 


OF   THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES.  2') 

the  divisions  of  inches,  feet,  yards,  &c.  An  acre  is  a  quantity 
of  land  in  which  there  are  4,840  yards  square,  or  160  square 
rods  or  perches,  and  which  it  takes  a  surveyor  to  ascertain  with 
certainty.  So  difficult  and  treacherous  arc  all  our  weights  and 
measures,  that  in  almost  every  article  of  build. ng,  and  for  every 
piece  of  work  done  by  house-carpenters  or  railway  builders,  or 
land  sold,  the  sworn  professional  weigher,  measurer,  or  surveyor, 
is  essential  before  the  simplest  i^ettlement  can  be  made  between 
neighbour  and  neighbour.  We  have  in  each  State  a  page  or. 
two,  and  in  some,  doubtless,  more,  of  laws  upon  the  subject  of 
weights  and  measures,  all  of  which  are  bottomed  upon  a  stand- 
ard derived  from  the  United  States,  and  they  obtain  their  stand- 
ard from  England,  and  she  had  hers  from  the  sources  already 
alluded  to. 

Now,  is  there  any  real,  unchangeable,  fixed  and  exact  standard 
existing  in  nature  capable  of  being  used  instead  of  those  we 
now  have?  If  so,  the  simplest  understanding  must  determine 
in  favour  of  its  adoption.  The  fact  that  the  earth  has  been 
already  measured,  and  that  its  proportions  are  definitely  ascer- 
tained and  applied  to  weights,  measures  and  coins,  furnishing  every 
required  advantage,  has  been  announced  by  the  highest  scientific 
authority  in  the  whole  world — the  French  Academy  of  Sciences. 
A  history  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  affair  is  of  the  highest 
importance,  and,  with  such  materials  as  are  at  command,  we 
may  gather  all  of  the  imposing  results  of  this  interesting  appli- 
cation of  science  to  the  commerce  of  the  world.  In  1700, 
Talleyrand  obtained  from  the  Constituent  Assembly,  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  an  order  that  the  Academy  of  Sciences  shoi^ld 
found  a  metrical  sj^stem  based  upon  nature  and  suitable  for 
acceptance  by  all  nations.  The  Academy  fixed  the  unit  at  the 
ten  millionth  part  of  the  terrestrijil  meridian — a  measurement 
having  been  made  by  Lacaille,  in  Peru;  but  another  line  was 
measured,  passing  through  France,  extending  from  Dunkirk  to 
Barcelona,  and  afterwards  northward  through  England  and 
Scotland — and  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  southward,  through  Spain, 
to  the  island  of  Fomentera.  This  ffvand  achievement,  durinir 
the  throes  of  revolution,  was  participated  in  by  other  nations  at 
the  invitation  of  the  provisional  government.     This  commission 


2G  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

was  composed  of  the  following  persons :  Berthola,  Borda,  Bris- 
son,  Laplace,  Lefevre,  Gineau,  Legendre,  Mecbam,  Monque, 
Prony  and  Vandermondc,  members  of  the  Institute  of  France; 
Aenx  and  Van  Swinden,  sent  by  the  Republic  of  the  Nether- 
lands; DeBalbo,  by  Sardinia;  Bugge,  by  Denmark;  Ciscar 
and  Pedrayes,  by  Spain;  Fabbroni,  by  Tuscany;  Franchini, 
by  the  Roman  Republic ;  Mascheroni,  by  the  Cis-Alphine  Re- 
public; Mullcdo,  by  the  Laguyrian  Republic;  Trallcs,  by  the 
Swiss  Confederation;  Vassalli,  by  Piedmont;  Lenoir,  a  French 
artist,  who  executed  the  metre  and  apparatus  relative  to  it,  and 
Fontiae,  also  a  French  artist,  author  of  the  kilogramme  and  its 
apparatus.  Julliet  Lavoisier  and  General  Meunier  took  an 
active  part  for  only  a  short  period,  unfortunately.  This  com- 
mittee, after  suitable  verification,  reported  the  metrical  system 
of  measures,  and  the  weights  were  deduced  from  the  metre  with 
the  new  coins,  constituting  five  units,  as  follows : 
A  metre — 1-10,000,000  of  the  distance  from  the  equator  to  the 

pole. 
An  are — 100  square  metres. 
A  store — 1  cubic  metre. 

A  gramme — 1-100  of  a  metre  of  water,  the  unit  of  weight. 
A  litre — 1-10  of  a  metre  square. 

These  names  are  very  simple,  and  are  invariable,  and  one 
reveals  the  other.  The  coins  are  of  different  weights  and 
measure  certain  proportions  of  a  metre,  as  has  been  stated  before. 
Now,  the  question  arises,  can  we  in  the  Confed>.rate  States  adopt 
a  metrical  decimal  system  in  lieu  of  the  one  which  the  Yankees 
use?  The  great  change  wrought  in  our  currency  was  Mr. 
Jefferson's  work,  by  which  a  decimal  currency  was  substituted 
in  the  place  of  our  confused  pounds,  shillings  and  pence.  May 
we  not,  with  perfect  propriety,  carry  into  our  weights  and 
measures  the  very  same  principle  which  we  have  so  much 
reason  to  see  is  the  simplest  and  the  best  in  our  currency.  The 
names  of  the  new  weights  and  measures,  as  well  as  our  coins, 
may  need  some  very  immaterial  changes,  and  the  revolution  in 
our  whole  social  and  commercial  and  literary  existence  becomes 
as  great  as  that  in  our  political  relations  has  been.  Why  may 
not  the  Congress  now  in  session  pass  a  resolution  authorizing 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  27 

the  President  to  appoint  a  committee  of  one  or  two  gentlemen, 
of  known  intelligence,  from  each  State,  to  prepare  a  system, 
embracing  the  decimal  metrical  principles,  and  dissolving  our 
language  in  commercial  intercourse  from  the  Yankee  language, 
because  it  is  a  better  one  and  a  purer  tongue.  Let  us  of  the 
Confederate  States  adopt  it,  drawing  from  the  earth  on  which 
we  tread  the  system  by  which  we  will  buy  or  sell,  and  teaching, 
in  every  business  transaction,  by  the  image  and  superscription 
on  the  coin  we  may  use,  that  we  are  a  race  of  men  affirming 
our  nationality,  and  in  our  weights  and  measures  declaring  tliat 
we  obey  the  great  Jewish  Lawgiver — the  balance  being  just,  th/g 
weights  eci[ual,  the  bushel  just,  and  the  sextery  equal 


28  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 


CHAPTER   VI. 

One  of  the  highest  acts  of  sovereignty  -which  any  Government 
performs,  is  the  assigning  of  instruments  to  commerce,  and 
designating  the  names  by  which  they  are  to  be  known  in 
every  transaction,  by  which  property  is  passed  from  citizen 
to  citizen,  in  all  their  buying  and  selling,  exchanging  or 
bartering.  These  things,  called  by  names  originating  in  the 
customs  of  the  people,  were  ascertained  and  announced  by 
the  Governments  of  the  world,  from  uncertain  standards, 
up  to  the  period  of  the  French  revolution,  in  1790,  when  a 
higher  and  more  comprehensive  suggestion  was  inaugurated^ 
as  that  intelligent  and  scientific  people  took  cognizance  of  the 
fact  that,  of  all  the  words  used  amiongst  mankind^  the  names  of 
their  coins,  weights  and  measures  were  used  as  often,  indeed 
oftener,  than  any  other  words  in  their  language — that  the 
language  of  any  people,  if  found  to  be  adopted  from  their  con- 
querors, was  conclusive  evidence  of  their  entire  subjugation. 
They  recognized  the  fact  that  Vt'ords  used  so  oftea  as  the  namea 
of  the  weights,  measures  and  coins  of  the  people^  should  convey 
ideas  of  an  exact  and  positive  character;  that  anything  called 
by  a  name  to  be  explained  and  comprehended,  the  thing  itself 
must  be  shown,  and  the  name  by  which  it  is  called  must  be  told 
to  the  listener  before  the  mind  can  form  any  idea  of  the  thing 
itself.  None  of  us  could  possibly  conceive  of  what  a  man  speaks 
in  an  unknown  tongue^  although  he  might  announce  the  name 
very  clearly,  or  if  the  commonest  object  about  us  be  called  by  a 
new  name  we  must  learn  the  change  of  name  and  see  the  thing 
alluded  to  before  the  mind  can  understand  the  sound.  Our 
Government  calls  the  measure  by  which  cloths  of  all  kinds  are 
sold  "a  yard*"  We  have  seen  the  thing  which  marks  the 
length  on  the  cloth,  and  we  understand  the  quantity  we  shall 
buy  or  sell,  when  we  hear  the  word  mentioned;  but  why  call  it 
a  yard;  why  not  call  it  the  "measure"?  What  we  mean  by  the 
word  yard,  we  know  to  be  the  distance  which  three  feet,  com- 


OP  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  29 

posed  of  twelve  inches  each,  the  inch  heing  just  as  long  as  three 
barley   corns,   when   laid   end   to   end.     In   plain    language,    a 
"yard"  is  just   the  same  space   that  one  hundred    and   eight 
barley  corns  would  cover  laid  in  a  straight  line  on  a  level  sur- 
face, each  end  of  each  grain  touching  the  grains  next  to  it,  and 
this  is  the  idea,  the  thought  which  is  conveyed  to  the  mind  when 
the  Government  says  "a  yard" — by  its  la^vs  or  its  proclama- 
tions, since  it  is  a  term  in  law  as  well  as  custom.     Every  one 
who  can  calculate  in  figures  the  simplest  sum  will  readily  under- 
stand the  great  ease  and  exactness  of  all  calculations  by  tens  or 
hundreds,  a  decimal  or  its  compound.     Why,  then,  should  we 
impose  upon  ourselves  and  upon  all  who  may  come  after  us  the 
unnecessary  labor  which  that  learned  simpleton,  John  Quincej 
Adams,  refused  to  take  from  our  shoulders,  when,  in  1821,  this 
very  question  of  decimal  weights  and  measures  was  reported  on 
by  him  when   Secretary  of  State;    and  chiefly  by  his  deport- 
ment, the  United  States  Government  refused  to  adopt  a  decimal 
system,  in  lieu  of  the  burthensome  and  complex  one  which  we 
had  inherited  from  England,  and  which  in  turn  the  Confederate 
States  have  adopted  from  the  Yankees.     If  we  mean  to  express 
a  distance  from  one  point  to  another,  the  fractions  below  the 
unit  can  be  expressed  better  in  parts  of  a  hundred  than  in  parts 
of  a  foot — an  inch — or  by  quarters,  halves,  or  eighths  or  six- 
teenths.     This  is  too  clear  to  admit  of  discussion.      Is  not  the 
measure  itself  objectionable,  when  we  come  to  analyze  it?     Sup- 
pose we  should  take  a  certain  part  of  the  distance  of  the  earth's 
surface,  from  one  point  to  another,  as  the  French  have  done  for 
for  our  unit,  and  divide  it  into  decimals,  as  they  have  done — we 
should  then  find  our  Government  and  our  people,  when  speaking 
of  the  measure,  would  mean  exactly  the  one  ten-millionth  part 
of  the   distance  from   the   equator  to   the  pole,  or  one   forty- 
millionth  of  the  distance  around  the  earth  through  the  poles. 
The  name  by  which  this  thing  shall  be  called  may  lead  to  some 
discussion,  as  the  whole  reformation  in  our  commercial  nomen- 
clature turns  on  this  starting  point ;  for  if  we  can  dethrone  the 
"yard,"  the  origin  of  which  has  hecn  traced  to  barley  corns,  we 
have  dispelled  the  charm  of  the  whole  system,  and  the  pathway 
becomes  clear  to  a  reformation,  absolute  .and  incalculable,  inas- 


30  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

much  as  every  Yankee  book  is  expelled  from  our  schools,  and 
every  word  a  Yankee  uses  in  buying  or  selling  becomes  obsolete 
as  certainly  as  the  course  of  nature  continues ;  for  the  new 
measure,  bottomed  on  the  size  of  the  globe  on  which  we  live,  be- 
comes the  foundation  of  all  the  weights  and  coins,  as  well  as  of 
every  thing  to  be  measured.  We  shall  speak  a  new  commercial 
dialect,  truthful  because  exact,  becoming  because  it  will  be  just 
and  right.  The  word  yard  is  a  bad  one — it  signifies  other 
things  than  a  measure,  as  an  enclosure ;  when  used  in  regard  to 
ships,  it  means  a  long  piece  of  timber  suspended  upon  the  mast 
by  which  a  sail  is  extended.  We  have  the  word  "meter,"  or 
"metre,"  signifying  measure,  and  already  applied  to  this  very 
subject  by  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  civilized  world.  In 
France,  Greece,  Belgium,  Sardinia,  Switzerland,  and  indeed  all 
Continental  Europe,  the  meaning  of  metre  is  far  better  under- 
stood than  the  word  yard*  The  metrical  system  has  been 
adopted  by  some  of  the  South  American  States,  as  well  as 
Mexico ;  and  the  word  metre,  the  term  employed,  is  in  use  in  all 
these  countries,  signifies  the  same  everywhere,  and  is  stereo- 
typed in"  its  application  to  distances  and  measures  of  all  kinds 
throughout  the  world,  for  all  time  to  come.  In  the  French  sys- 
tem, they  have  borrowed  all  their  nomenclature  from  the  dead 
languages — the  dividing  terms  being  taken  from  the  Latin,  and 
the  multiplying  ones  from  the  Greek.  It  has  been  said  with 
some  pious  emotions,  and  with  much  apparent  force,  that  when 
the  oracles  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  became  complete,  the 
Hebrew  language  ceased  to  be  a  spoken  or  living  language — 
that  upon  the  completion  of  the  New  Testament  Christian 
Scriptures,  the  Greek  language  became  a  dead  language ;  the 
Book  of  God  thus  is  stereotyped  forever  beyond  the  possibility 
of  change  or  interpolation  by  any  agency.  The  French  Acad- 
emy of  Science,  with  her  philosophers  and  statesmen,  in  search- 
ing for  names,  borrowed  their  words  fromHhe  dead  languages^ 
hut  the  things  they  signified  from  the  unalterable  proportions  of 
the  earth  itself ;  thus,  by  two  immutable  things  adjusting  upon 
exact  principles,  the  instruments  of  their  commercial  transac- 
tions to  the  latest  posterity.  We  are  wishing  to  liberate  our- 
selves from  Yankee  ideas  in  business  matters,  let  us  change  our 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  31 

words  in  business  affairs.  Wc  uish  an  independence  of  them 
commercially  ;  let  us  make  our  language  of  commerce  a  different 
one,  and  the  thing  follows  as  a  necessary  consequence ;  for 
although  commerce  may  be  king,  yet  the  king  must  and  does 
obey  laws,  and  one  of  those  laws  <as  unchangeable  as  gravitation 
is,  that  without  a  change  in  our  laws  upon  commercial  subjects, 
without  different  laws  from  those  of  the  Yankees,  we  shall  have 
the  same  commercial  ideas,  and,  what  is  far  worse,  the  same 
habits  and  customs  in  all  our  transactions.  Man  makes  the 
laws,  true ;  but  then  the  laws  he  makes  govern  and  mould  him 
and  the  institutions  which  control  his  action  and  form  his  char- 
acter. The  words  metre  and  kilogramme — the  one  the  unit  of 
commercial  measure  and  the  other  the  unit  of  commercial 
weight — signifying  the  things  they  truly  represent,  would,  if 
adopted  and  placed  in  the  business  and  comn>erce  of  our  country 
in  the  place  of  the  words  yard  and  pound,  do  more  in  the 
course  of  time  to  destroy  Yankee  influence  in  the  Confederate 
States,  than  did  the  battle  of  Manassas — and  we  value  above 
any  price  this  splendid  exhibition  of  Southern  valor.  The 
kilogramme  weight  is  exactly  the  weight  of  one-tenth  of  a  metre 
square  of  distilled  water — the  unit  of  measure  for  liquids.  If, 
therefore,  science  and  the  plainest  truths  can  weigh  upon  a 
question  of  so  much  gravity  and  so  easy  of  accomplishment,  we 
anticipate  the  action  which  has  been  suggested,  viz:  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  of  enlightened  gentlemen  to  prepare 
and  report  to  Congress  a  decimal  system  of  weights  and 
measures,  as  well  as  new  coins,  deriving  the  unit  of  measures 
from  the  metre,  which  we  have  shown  is  the  basis  of  the  whole 
system. 

The  ten  figures  we  use  in  our  calculations  are  constantly  tell- 
ing us  on  every  occasion  that  we  may  use  them,  that  the  decimal 
system  is  the  simplest  and  the  best ;  but  the  facts  that  every 
approach  towards  it^ntroduction  into  general  use  has  been  ap- 
proved and  sanctioned  by  all  the  nations  who  have  tried  it,  and 
that  we  arc  devising  means  of  escape  from  Yankee  tyranny  and 
aggression,  and  that  the  enemy  of  Southern  men  and  of  the 
Southern  States,  John  Quincy  Adams,  opposed  the  introduction 
of  the  decimal  system  into  our  weights  and  measures,  after  Mr. 


32  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

Jefferson  had  introduced  it  into  our  currency,  should  certainly 
go  a  great  way  in  determining  us  to  abandon  a  system  bad  in 
itself,  but  rendered  worse  by  its  use  amongst  a  people  who  are 
to-day  plotting  our  destruction  by  sea  and  land.  Revolutions 
iire  far  more  valuable  in  unloosing  men's  minds  from  old  ideas 
and  forcing  society  into  new  habits  and  customs,  than  they  are 
in  settling  rights  or  adjusting  disputes.  If  amidst  this  one  of 
such  fearful  magnitude,  our  habits  and  customs  shall  so  change 
as  that  the  very  language  of  our  Aveights,  measures  and  coins 
shall  be  made  new  and  cleansed  of  its  pollution  from  Yankee 
words  and  things,  we  may  say,  in  years  to  come,  with  the  intel- 
ligent and  gifted  philosopher  and  tradesman  of  France,  as  he 
looks  upon  the  metre  on  his  counter — the  letre  upon  his  shelf, 
and  the  franc  in  his  till,  and  his  code  Napolean  on  his  table, 
these  are  some  of  tjie  gifts  to  me  of  the  bloodiest  revolution  in 
the  tide  of  time,  and  they  are  more  than  any  other  country  has 
ever  obtained  from  any  civil  or  political  revolution,  since  they 
teach  me  the  size  of  the  earth,  the  value  of  science,  the  excel- 
lence of  fairness  and  the  wisdom  of  justice. 

It  may  be  stated  as  one  of  the  last  measures  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  Confederate  Pongress  by  the  illustrious  states- 
man, John  Tyler,  was  his  resolution  instructing  the  committee 
on  Commerce  to  enquire  into  the  expediency  of  adopting  a  new 
system  of  weights  and  measures,  as  well  as  new  coins  for  the 
Confederate  States. 

Your  valuable  suggestion  respecting  the  coins  for  the  Confed- 
erate States  in  your  editorial  of  the  23d  inst.,  renders  it  neces- 
sary that  an  omission  in  the  communicatian  upon  weights, 
measures  and  coins  should  be  supplied. 

The  values  of  all  coins  arc  ascertained  and  defined  by  their 
vrEiGiiT  and  fineness — as  appears  by  our  acts  of  March  16th, 
1861.  The  American  dollar  should  wei^  412|  grains.  The 
Mexican  dollar  415  grains  of  867||.000p  pure  silver ;  a  five 
franc  piece  should  Aveigh  384  grains  of  900||1000  pure  silver. 
Our  unit  of  weight  is  a  wheat  grain;  and  since  all  wheat  grains 
are  not  of  the  same  weight,  the  standard  is  inexact.  If  we 
were  to  derive  our  unit  of  weight  by  taking  the  distance  from 


OP  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  33 

one  place  to  another  on  the  earth's  surface,  and  dividing  that 
distance  into  a  given  number  of  parts,  and  then  take  a  fraction 
of  a  single  part  and  construct  a  square  measure  and  fdl  it  with 
distilled  water  of  a  given  temperature,  we  should  have  an  exact 
standard  of  tveiglit^  since  every  such  measure  would  weigh  the 
same  everywhere. 

As  to  the  size  of  the  coins,  it  is  but  too  obvious  that  we 
snould  avoid  the  diminutive  unit  of  the  French,  although  the 
skill  with  which  they  have  ascertained  the  distance  from  the 
equator  to  the  pole,  may  be  worthy  of  our  highest  praise,  and 
even  adoption,  as  the  means  by  which  we  shall  find  a  unit  of 
weight,  in  lieu  of  the  grain  of  wheat  and  as  a  basis  for  our 
measures,  in  place  of  the  grains  of  barley  corn.  A  new  nomen- 
clature in  the  place  of  our  yards,  ells,  acres,  miles,  roods, 
perches,  penny-weight,  scruples,  gallons,  gills,  quarts,  pints, 
butts,  pipes,  tons,  pounds,  stones  et  al,  &c.,  seems  so  necessary 
that.it  needs  not  to  be  commended.  We  do  not  abandon  the 
decimal  currency  by  altering  the  unit  of  weights,  although  it 
would  upset  the  standard  by  which  the  value  of  the  coin  itself 
would  be  ascertained.  You  desire  to  get  rid  of  the  word 
"dollar"  because  the  Yankees  use  it — a  southern  sentiment, 
and  evidences  a  purpose  which  seeks  independence,  and  will  ob- 
tain it — the  proposed  system  for  new  weights  and  measures  will 
get  rid  of  it. 

We  positively  have  no  standard  for  weights,  measures  or 
coins,  and  yet  make  them  standards  of  admeasurement  for  other 
things.  How  long  is  a  foot  ?  As  long  as  twelve  inches.  How 
long  is  an  inch  ?  As  long  as  three  barley  corns.  How  long  is 
a  barley  corn  ?  That  depends  on  circumstances.  What  is  the 
weight  of  a  grain  of  wheat? 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  1817,  when  advocating  a  reform  in  the 
currency  of  Great  Britain,  says  he  asked  a  witness  before  the 
Parliamentary  Committee  what  a  pound  sterling  was,  and  his 
reply  was,  "I  can't  tell  you,  but*  every  body  knows."  The 
great  statesman  at  once  undertook  the  great  work  of  reforming 
and  correcting  the  inaccuracies  existing  in  the  coinage  of  the 
kingdom,  the  process  by  which  this  was  accomplished  need  not 

be  related.    He  reached  as  much  exactness  as  the  bad  standards 
3 


34  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

he  found  in  use  would  warrant.  But  we  must  not  dismiss  this 
important  subject  without  saying  that  there  is  hut  one  exact  and 
unalterable  standard  yet  discovered,  viz:  A  certain  proportion 
of  the  distance  from  one  point  to  another  of  the  earth,  and  this 
standard  is  applicable  alike  to  weights,  measures  and  coins. 

We  shall  encounter  some  difficulty  in  deciding  whether  we 
shall  take  silver  for  our  unit  or  gold ;  if  we  adopt  gold,  we  may 
very  readily  find  a  unit  of  such  value  as  will  obey  your  sugges- 
tion for  a  larger  unit  than  we  now  have,  and  yet  observe  the 
decimal  divisions;  if  we  adhere  to  silver  we  may  be  compelled 
to  find  a  reconciliation  of  the  decimal  proportions  of  alloy  and 
pure  metal  with  the  same  principle  in  the  division  of  the  coin 
itself,  in  an  unit  possessed  of  more  bulk  than  convenience  would 
justify.  The  matchless  resources  of  the  country  and  the  gene- 
rous dispositions  of  our  people,  seem  to  indicate  a  large  and 
valuable  unit  as  proper  for  us,  since  the  coins  are  part  of  the 
character  of  the  nation  that  may  use  them. 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  35 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FREE  TRADE-EXCISES  -MERCHANTS'  SALES,  &C.-SOTJRCES 
OF  REVENUE-DIRECT  TAXATION. 

We  now  approach  the  subject  of  taxation,  the  true  method 
for  raising  the  revenues  of  the  Confederate  States — whether 
by  taxes  of  an  indirect  character  on  imports — by  excises — by 
taxation  on  the  sales  of  merchandize,  d*  by  a  direct  tax  on  the 
whole  property  of  the  citizens  of  the  Confederacy.  History 
furnishes  us  with  the  fact,  that  two  prolific  sources  of  wars 
amongst  mankind  have  been  the  collection  and  disbursement  of 
the  public  revenue.  The  decay  and  downfall  of  nations  lies 
deeper,  and  is  traceable  to  the  wearing  out  of  the  lands  on 
which  they  live,  more  than  to  any  defects  in  Government.  An 
enquiry  into  the  reasons  which  led  to  our  separation  from  our 
late  associates,  must  compel  us  to  recognize  as  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  dispute,  and,  indeed,  the  very  root  and  beginning  of 
the  quarrel,  a  tariff  on  imports ;  for  obviously  until  the  col- 
lection was  made,  no  distribution  could  occur ;  and  although  we 
felt  and  saw  the  injustice  practiced  upon  us  in  the  distribution, 
as  well  as  in  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  yet,  if  there  had 
never  been  any  duty  levied  upon  the  imports  of  the  United 
States,  our  situated  might,  and  doubtless  would  have  been 
widely  different  from  that  we  now  occupy.  The  dispute  be- 
tween the  disciples  of  protection  and  revenue  may  vindicate  the 
folly  of  one  side  or  the  other,  but  the  system  of  raising  the 
revcDues  for  a  Confederacy  covering  so  many  degrees  of  the 
earth's  surface,  by  a  tax  upon  the  productions  brought  into  it 
for  sale  at  the  very  moment  of  their  introduction,  is  objected  to 
because  of  its  injustice  and  want  of  diffusion  amongst  the  people, 
and  particularly  by  a  tariff  varying  the  charges  on  the  different 
articles. 

A  tax  upon  all  the  property  of  a  country,  according  to  value, 
is  an  ad  valorem  tax ;  but  if  property  in  land  be  taxed  one 
dollar,  and  property  in  horses  or  slaves  to  be  taxed  at  fifty  cents. 


86  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

it  is  not  ad  valorem,  and,  singular  as  it  may  seem,  our  tariff  has 
been  enacted  so  as  to  violate  these  simple  principles.  Different 
charges  being  exacted  upon  the  value  of  different  articles — the 
article,  not  its  value,  regulating  the  charges  exacted  by  the 
Government — the  reasons  Avhich  controlled  our  Congress  must 
have  been  those  which  have  been  offered  by  the  old  Government 
that  now  is  tottering  into  the  grave,  viz.,  that  articles  of  luxury 
must  and  ought  to  pay  more  than  necessaries — the  decision  of 
what  is  a  luxury  and  what  a  necessary  being  made,  of  course, 
by  Congress.  A  pair  of  boots  costs  five  dollars  in  Paris ;  the 
duty  is  fifteen  per  cent.,  or  seventy-five  cents;  a  diamond  may 
cost  the  same  to  ornament  a  breast-pin,  the  duty  is  ten  per 
cent.,  or  fifty  cents ;  the  cost  of  cloth  enough  to  make  a  coat 
may  be  in  England  ten  dollars,  the  duty  will  be  one  dollar  and 
fifty  cents ;  the  value  of  forty  pounds  of  South  American  wool 
may  be  the  same,  and  yet  it  will  pay  only  one  dollar.  You  tax 
one  citizen  upon  his  consumption  one  sum  and  another  citizen  a 
different  sum  upon  the  same  value  of  foreign  merchandize — the 
folly  and  injustice  of  these  discriminations  is  too  obvious ;  but 
the  statement  that  neither  would  pay  anything  unless  we  used 
the  articles,  thus  rendering  all  imposts  optional  with  the  citizen, 
is  of  all  the  defences  for  injustice  the  most  deceptive  and 
Jesuitical,  in  this,  that  it  assumes  we  ought  not  to  trade  with 
any  nation  except  ourselves,  as  all  other  buying  is  taxed  rightly. 
The  whole  argument  comes  to  this  absurdity,  and  ought,  there- 
fore, to  be  discountenanced  and  abandoned  forever.  If  a 
uniform  rate  of  duty  upon  all  articles  was  adopted,  it  would  be 
a  nearer  approximation  to  justice  and  equity  ;  but  a  fatal  objec- 
tion exists  respecting  all  duties  upon  imports,  which  cannot  be 
removed  by  any  device  yet  discovered.  How  can  the  value  be 
ascertained  ?  If  the  value  at  the  place  of  export  is  taken,  that 
varies  as  between  seller  and  buyer  so  much  as  to  favor  all  who 
consign  goods  on  their  own  account,  made  by  themselves,  and 
of  course  the  foreign  manufacturer  becomes  the  supplier  of 
our  markets,  through  his  own  agent,  who  swears  to  all  the 
invoices  sent  him,  as  to  the  cost  and  value  to  the  maker,  with- 
out detriment,  if  he  escapes  detection  ?  Our  resident  importers 
are  merely  dealers  in  selected  articles,  and,  if  honest,  cannot  go 


OF   THE    CONFEDERATE   STATES.  -J  t 

beyond  this  limited  sphere  except  \sitlialoss.  If  you  take  a 
home  valuation,  different  valuer  will  attach  to  the  same  article 
at  different  ports.  This  objection  is  positive,  and  cannot  be 
removed  as  against  cither  system — a  home  or  foreign  valuation. 
The  policy  of  making  the  merchants  of  the  cauntry  its  col- 
lectors of  revenue  cannot  be  sound,  since  the  honest  man  is 
defeated  in  his  vocation  by  the  unscrupulous.  The  Government. 
l)v  gathering  its  taxes  at  the  gates  of  the  country,  declarer 
itself  unwilling  to  place  any  confidence  in  those  who  propose  to 
bring  in  their  property  for  sale.  The  smuggler,  undetected,  is 
without  a  crime,  and,  with  his  class,  is  an  object  of  admiration. 
The  detective,  as  the  Government  officer  is  obliged  to  become, 
is  not  an  enviable  character.  ■  The  worthy  merchant  feels  and 
sees  the  injustice  to  him,  which  ought  te  be  removed,  but  he  is 
without  any  remedy,  since  there  is  no  citizen  of  any  country 
who  can  tell  the  cost  to  him  of  his  Government  when  the  taxes 
are  collected  on  imports.  The  revenue  is  collected  as  stealthily 
as  the  pickpocket  filches  property  from  his  unsuspecting  victim. 
The  results  upon  the  mind  of  the  independent  citizen  when 
forced  to  choose  between  the  swindler  and  the  smuggler,  wouM 
be  a  condemnation  of  both,  but  for  his  knowledge  of  the  fact 
that  his  own  Government  was  exercising  the  office  of  taking 
tribute  from  a  people  Avith6ut  their  knowing  the  amount  actually 
abstracted.  Yet  we  are  burthened  with  a  tariff  on  imports  at 
the  very  threshold  of  our  existence,  as  a  Confederacy,  bottomed 
upon  old  ideas  taken  from  a  Government  which  was  tumbling 
into  ruins,  chiefly  from  this  cause,  when  we  escaped  from  it. 
The  rapacity  incident  to  man  in  every  Government  will  en- 
deavor to  use  the  power  of  the  ncAv  Government  for  its  own  ad- 
vancement, and  we  must  expect  a  revival  of  the  old  quarrel 
unless  we  discard  the  system  of  taxation  upon  imports,  by  which 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  collected  its  revenue. 
The  hiatus  in  the  system  which  the  war  has  occasioned  is  very 
lucky  for  the  liberties  of  the  country.  The  absence  of  revenue 
from  the  custom-houses  has  disembarrassed  the  subject,  although 
the  officers  arc  kept,  with  their  salaries,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
regularly  paid — an  expense  which  should  be  stopped  at  once. 
Excises   levied   upon   certain   articles,   when   sold,    of  both 


38  COMMERCIAL   ENFRANCHISEMENT 

foreign  and  domestic  manufacture,  such  as  liquors,  salt,  etc.,  are 
equally  unjust ;  but  if  an  indirect  tax,  yet  a  certain  method  of 
securing  the  revenue  without  the  difficulty  of  finding  the  value 
and  an  approximation  to  justice,  be  decided  upon  then  as  a  basis 
of  taxation,  let  the  sales  of  the  licensed  merchants  of  the  country 
he  taken,  attaching  the  simple  condition  that  the  article  shall  be 
taxed  but  upon  one  sale.  This  will  settle  the  question  of  its 
value,  for  the  sale  will  disclose  the  value  of  the  articles  quite 
surely.  The  fact  of  allowing  every  one  to  enter  our  ports  with 
their  products,  free  of  charge,  and  here  seek  a  market  for  them, 
would  create  for  us  ships,  merchants  and  imports,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  .ready  buyers  and  carriers  for  our  crops.  Could 
there  be  a  question  but  that  the  Government  would  thus  collect 
the  amplest  revenue,  since  it  would  take  its  revenue  on  a  higher 
value  than  the  foreign  invoice ;  and  an  additional  recommenda- 
tion to  that  course  would  be,  that  the  State  officers  could  collect 
the  Confederate  taxes,  thus  dispensing  with  the  immense  army 
of  custom-house  officers.  But  the  fact  that  the  taxes  which 
would  be  thus  collected  must  come  from  the  land  and  labor  of 
the  country,  and  would  be  gathered  by  indirect  means,  makes 
the  proposal  to  collect  the  revenues  of  the  Confederate  States 
by  a  tax  on  the  sales  of  the  merchants,  and  not  on  their  impor- 
tation, only  a  preferable  competing  proposition  to  do  the  same 
thing,  viz :  collect  the  revenue  indirectly.  Any  system  is 
better  than  a  tariflf  with  different  charges  on  different  articles 
for  an  independent  commerce.  No  independence  can  exist 
without  liberty.  To  render  a  nation  free  and  independent,  it  is 
a  prerequisite  that  its  trade  should  be  free,  absolutely. 

The  hand  of  Government  is  pernicious  in  all  trading,  inas- 
much as  all  laws  regulating  the  subject  must  originate  in  some 
interest  or  other.  The  major  interest  must  enact  them,  and 
that  for  which  all  laws  and  constitutions  should  exist,  viz :  the 
protection  of  the  weak,  is  defeated  and  overridden  by  the  rapa- 
city of  the  majority.  The  fact  that  we  are  Southern  States  and 
people,  owning  the  same  kind  of  labor,  will  not  dethrone  the 
inherent  organization  of  man.  For  every  reason  originating  in 
integrity,  and  a  sagacitj^  worthy  of  the  great  mission  upon 
which  we  are  now  entering,  let  us  discard  every  indirect  method 


OF  ■yiE  CONFEDERATE  STATES. 


39 


of  obtaining  from  the  people  tlie  money  necessary  to  carry  on 
the  Government  wliicli  the  States  have  called  into  being.  The 
fact  that  so  many  State  Governments,  which  manage  our 
domestic  concerns  so  well,  collect  their  revenues  in  the  open 
light  of  day,  without  difficulty,  and  that  they  and  the  people  of 
whom  they  collect  their  taxes  desire  to  know  what  they  pay, 
should  vindicate  the  system  of  direct  ^nd  honest  dealing.  The 
office-holder  and  the  wealthy  miser  may  dislike  direct  taxation  : 
but,  that  according  to  the  property  of  every  man  in  the  commu- 
nity the  central  Government  should  apportion  its  revenue,  may 
be  safely  commended  as  a  policy  destitute  of  a  thousaiul  evils 
which  must  attach  to  any  indirect  method  of  securing  a  revenue. 
In  addition  to  these  reasons,  absolute  experience,  as  reported  by 
Seybert,  shows  that  the  cost  of  collecting  the  direct  taxes  from 
1791  to  1810,  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  was 
only  four  dollars'  and  four  cents  average  on  each  hundred 
dollars.  The  cost  of  collecting  the  i-evenue  through  the  custom- 
houses, for  fifty  years,  was  much  more ;  to  which  must  be 
added  the  enormous  cost  of  custom-houses,  warehouses,  revenue 
service,  etc.  Sec  the  financial  report  of  1857  and  1858  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  De  Bow's  Review,  vol. 
22,  page  386,  gives  a  table  which  makes  the  cost  of  the  indirect 
.system  fully  fifty  per  ceittum  more  than  the  expenses  of  collect- 
ing the  taxes  directly. 

An  argument  in  favor  of  direct  taxation,  if  there  were  no 
other  perfectly  conclusive,  may  be  f^und  in  the  question  respect- 
ing emigration,  which  must  arise  upon  the  return  of  peace.  All 
taxes  on  imports  act  as  a  premium  to  emigration.  A  shoe- 
maker in  Lynn  will  not  come  to  the  Southern  States  to  make 
shoes  if  he  have  an  open  market  for  his  productions ;  but  if  he 
finds  his  shoes  taxed,  he  will  simply  come  into  the  Confederate 
States  witli  his  tools  and  make  his  shoes  here,  thereby  obtaining 
the  protection  furnished  by  the  tax  on  the  importation,  and  also 
protection  against  all  other  foreigners  and  their  labor. 

Upon  lliii:  subject  the  Convention  caino  to  tliis  conchision  : 
Resolved,    'ihat   it   be    recommended   to  the   Congress  of  tlie   Confederato 
States  to  i*ns|iend  the  collecfioii  of  all  duties  on  imports,  and  lhat  all  the  pons 
of  the  Confederate  Stales  be  thrown  open,  and  be  made  free  to  the  trade  of  all 
tlip  ,,.t;,,,w  <,jii,,.  ^.v^ri.i  ^,■l.o  rnaiiitain  peace  with  us. 


40  COMMERCIAL    ENFKANCUI^MEXT 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

PROPOSITIONS  FOR  ADOPTION  BY  CORPORATIONS,  STATES. 
AND  CONFEDERATIONS. 

The  pilot  laws  of  some  of  the  States  arc  prejudicial  to  foreign 
commerce;  particularly  is  this  so  in  Virginia.  See  the  subject 
discussed,  in  De  Bow's  Review,  and  in  a  letter  appended  to 
the  speech  of  D.  II.  London  before  the  Virginia  Legislature, 
January,  1860.  The  pilots  should  be  made  to  enter  upon  every 
Northern  vessel,  and  a  Confederate  officer,  at  the  charge  of  the 
vessel,  continued  with  her,  during  her  stay  in  Southern  waters, 
as  a  police  over  her.  The  voluntary  feature  respecting  the 
pilots  in  all  the  States  should  be  substituted  instead  of  any  com- 
pulsion to  employ  them  as  to  all  other  vessels. 

The  Government  of  the  Confederate  States  was  instituted  to 
take  care  of  our  foreign  relations,  the  States  to  watch  over  and 
protect  our  domestic  interests. 

We  suggest  that  the  taxes  collected  upon  each  sale  of  mer- 
chandise by  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  Alabama  and  Virginia 
ought  to  be  altered,  and  the  principle  of  the  license  laws  of 
Tennessee,  collecting  but  one  tax  on  the  same  article,  could  be 
substituted  without  detriment  either' to  the  States  or  their  com- 
merce. The  dealings  in  bills  of  exchange  and  the  banking  laws 
of  the  several  States  are  subjects  which  time  and  the  operations 
of  the  tax  on  bank  issues  will  correct. 

All  city  taxation  should  be  abandoned  on  the  use  of  capital 
and  on  trades  throughout  the  Confederate  States. 

"After  the  prodigious  changes  which  have  been  Avrought  in 
our  situation,  and,  indeed,  in  that  of  the  world,  it  has  become 
absolutely  necessary  to  enter  on  a  careful,  but  fearless  revision 
of  our  whole  commercial  system,  that  Ave  may  be  enabled  safely, 
yet  promptly,  to  eradicate  those  faults  which  our  former  con- 
nections have  enabled  or  displayed ;  to  retrace  our  steps  where 
we  shall  find  that  they  have  deviated  from  the  line  of  true 
policy ;  to  adjust  and  accommodate  our  laws  to  the  alteration  of 


OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES.  41 

circumstarccs;  to  abandon  many  prejudices  alike  antiquated 
and  senseless,  unsuited  to  the  advanced  age  in  which  we  live, 
and  unworthy  of  the  sound  judgment  which  should  distinguish 
tile  nation." 

Thcroforo,  in  view  of  tlic  considerations  anil  fact-;,  mc  ask  tbe  c9ncurre)fico 
"■f  tlie  Convention  at  Macon  in  the  following  propositions: 

1st.  That  the  report  preceding  be  laid  before  the  Congress  of  the  Confede. 
rate  States,  and  such  action  thereon  taken  as  shall  be  jti.stificd  by  the  argu- 
ments therein  contained,  and  such  otlier  coiisi<leration6  as  may  present 
tliemsclves  to  Congress  in  connection  with  our  commercial  interests  at  the 
ports  on  the  Meditorranean  ocean,  the  Baltic  and  all  otlier  European  ports,  as- 
n^ell  as  tbc  ports  of  South  America  and  the  West  Indies. 

2d.  That  the  trade  in  the  tobacco  of  tlie  Confederate  States  should  be 
disci/ ibarrassed  of  all  Government  monopolies  in  Europe,  and  that  a  reduction 
of  the  duties  in  England  should  be  soiight  by  every  means. 

3d.  That  a  commission  to  prepaisB  at  once  an  entirely  new  system  of 
weights  and  measures,  as  well  as  new  coins,  may  be  created. 

4th.  A  repeal  of  the  entire  system  of  duties  on  imports,  and  a  permanem 
.-'ystem  of  direct  taxation  be  adopted. 

.^tU.  That  the  entry  and  clearance  of  all  vessels,  as  well  as  the  police  on 
the  vessels  of  the  (Northern)  United  States  of  .\merica,  properly  belongs  to 
tlie  Navy  Department  of  the  Government,  and  .should  be  placed  under  that 
department  and  not  under  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

fith.  .That  the  establishment  of  an  exchequer  of  the  Confederate  States 
would  greatly  assist  and  facilitate  onr  Government  and  people  in  their  tran.«- 
iictions.  by  furnishing  a  siife  doiioMt-irv  and  a  uniform  mcdiuni  nf  pxcli:in<r,. 
fur  all  parts  of  the  countr;. 

And  \vc  further  ask  I'm-  ■  oiirurn-titu-  of  the  Conventidii  in  lij"  loiidw  ,i)g 
[iroposals : 

1st.  That  the  report  may  be  enclosed  to  the  Governors  of  Virginia.  Nurth 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia.  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Loni.-iana. 
Texas.  Arkansas,  Tennessee  and  Jlissouri,  with  the  reqtiest  that  they  will  lay 
it  before  their  several  Legislatures,  requesting  them  to  adjust  where  they  mav 
their  pilot,  inspection  and  other  laws  to  our  altered  circumstances;  securing 
the  delivery  of  all  vessels  entering  our  waters  from  the  L^nitcd  States  to  the 
proper  Confederate  officers.  That  ail  inspections  of  commodities  not  abso- 
lutely necessary  may  be  dispensed  with  or  rendered  voluntary,  and  that  in  all 
■•rtses  where  any  article  may  require  any  mark  or  marks  of  condemnation,  the 
letters  V,  S'.  may  bo  used  to  indicate  that  they  are  below  standard  marketable 
articles  ;  that  the  gierchants' liccpso  laws  may  be  so  altered  where  they  exist 
as  that  no  article  of  merchandise  upon  its  sale  shall  pay  but  one  State  tax- 
thus  securing  its  delivery  to  the  consumers  all  over  each  State  at  the  same 
rate  of  taxation. 

An-1  we  further  ask  of  the  Ci.nvention  concurrence  in  the  followii.^ 
projio^als : 


^-  COMMERCIAL    ENFRANCHISEMENT,    iC. 

1st.  That  the  annexed  report  be  I'orwarded  to  tlie  Councils  of  Norfolk. 
Richmond  and  Petersburg,  Va.;  Wilmington,  Beaufort  and  Raleigh,  N.  C. ; 
Charleston  and  Columbia,  S.  C. ;  Savannah  and  Macon,  Ga.:  St.  Augustine 
and  Pensacola,  Fla. ;  Mobile  and  Montgomery,  Ala.;  Vicksburg,  Miss.;  New 
Orleans,  La.;  Galveston.  Texas;  Little  Rock,  Arkansas:  Memphis  and 
Nashville,  Tenn.;  with  the  request  that  they  may  consider  the  propriety  of 
iidjusting  their  system  of  corporation  taxes,  so  as  to  relieve  the  trades  and 
jn-ofcsf  ions  of  all  unnecessary  restrictions,  as  it  is  obvious  tliat  these  render 
real  estate  usefid — it  is  the  trading  population  of  all  of  our  cities  whicli 
renders  real  estate  valuable. 

Tlie  Convention  reached  the  following  resolution  upon  the  .subjects  dis- 
cussed : 

Resolved.  That  the  memorial  of  a  citizen  of  Virginia  upon  the  subjects  oi 
free  trade,  coins,  weights  and  measures,  taxation,  pilot  laws,  &c.,  be  recam- 
mended  to  the  attention  of  the  several  States  and  commercial  cities,  and  be 
printed  amongst  the  proceeding's  of  the  Convention. 


V 


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